[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 23, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9782-S9783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REGARDING PRODUCT LIABILITY REFORM

  Mr. ENZI. President, I rise to briefly discuss S. 648, a bill to 
establish standards and procedures for products liability legislation. 
I am proud to be a cosponsor of that bill and I feel that it should be 
a legislative priority for consideration during this session of the 
105th Congress.
  In the 104th Congress, both the House and Senate passed meaningful 
product liability reform legislation only to have it vetoed by 
President Clinton. The President now indicates that he wants to sign a 
products liability reform bill. Legal reform has the broad support of 
the American people and strong bipartisan support in Congress.
  With each passing day, we are losing an opportunity to do the 
people's business by not enacting common sense legal reform. S. 648 is 
designed to inject some common sense into runaway punitive damage 
awards in view of the need for some semblance of uniformity in our 
National interstate commerce system.
  Last May, the United States Supreme Court held in BMW in North 
America v. Gore, that punitive damages can be considered so excessive 
as to violate a defendant's constitutional due process rights. It seems 
that many courts have not heeded this lesson. Just a few weeks ago, 
another case received national attention for the enormity of its 
punitive damage award. A jury in a Louisiana State court levied a $2.5 
billion punitive damage award against CSX Transportation corporation 
and $1 billion against the other defendants in the case for their 
involvement in a 1987 tank car fire. The court

[[Page S9783]]

awarded this enormous punitive judgment despite findings by the 
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that CSXT did not cause the 
accident and that no serious injuries resulted from the accident.
  In light of these egregious examples, it is time for Congress to pass 
legislation to reign in these exploding legal costs which have hurt 
American businesses, stifled ingenuity, and punished consumers through 
higher prices and decreased competition. S. 648 would mark an important 
first step in reforming a tort system which all too often better 
resembles a lottery than a forum of justice. I urge our leadership to 
make S. 648 a priority in the first session of the 105th Congress.

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